Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Local Development Plan 2 Place
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Local Development Plan 2 Place Plan Toolkit Developing Affordable Housing with a Community Land Trust Consultation: September 2020 Adoption: May 2021 This item is also available in Welsh/ Mae’r eitem hon ar gael yn Gymraeg hefyd Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority What is the purpose of this Guidance? ................................................................................................. 2 What is Affordable Housing? ................................................................................................................ 2 Finding a suitable building site .............................................................................................................. 2 Bringing A Site Forward: Tips and Advice ............................................................................................ 3 Land owner Intention............................................................................................................................ 3 Landscape Impact ................................................................................................................................. 3 Amenity ................................................................................................................................................. 3 Ecological Sensitivity ............................................................................................................................. 3 Flood Risk .............................................................................................................................................. 3 Sewerage Capacity Water Supply ......................................................................................................... 3 Access for people and traffic ................................................................................................................ 3 Historic Environment ............................................................................................................................ 3 Affordable Housing Need ...................................................................................................................... 3 Further Advice and Support ...................................................................................................................... 4 Appendix 1 Extract of the Adopted Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Local Development Plan 2 (September 2020) ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Appendix 2 Centres listed in Local Development Plan 2 .......................................................................... 8 Appendix 3 Suitable Sites for Affordable Housing .................................................................................... 9 Appendix 4 Site Assessment ................................................................................................................... 13 Appendix 5 Useful Contacts .................................................................................................................... 19 References ................................................................................................................................................ 1 1 What is the purpose of this Guidance? 1. The purpose of this Guidance is to assist in bringing forward affordable housing developments with the help of Community Land Trusts. This is one of a series of Place Plan Toolkits that the National Park Authority intends to prepare. 2. A Community Land Trust is set up by the community for the community. The Community Land Trust endeavours to keep the homes or assets permanently affordable. This means that the home or asset is not just made affordable for the first buyers but that the Community Land Trust maintains the affordability of the housing or asset in perpetuity. 3. Pembrokeshire benefits from having its own funded Community Land Trust Officer who is coordinating community initiatives for bringing forward affordable housing. What is Affordable Housing? 4. For the purposes of the land use planning system, affordable housing is defined as housing that is available exclusively to people in housing need that cannot afford to access the open market. Finding a suitable building site 5. A Community Land Trust may find that land will come forward from local landowners who are swayed by the emphasis that Community Land Trusts place upon meeting local needs and the assurance the land and homes will be stewarded in perpetuity for the benefit of the local community. 6. There are three potential sources of sites for Community Land Trust: . allocated sites (shown in the Local Development Plan as being suitable for housing development with a proportion of the site safeguarded for affordable housing delivery) . windfall sites (unforeseen sites) and; . Affordable Housing Exception Sites (sites currently lying outside the Centre). See Policy 49 of Local Development Plan 2 in Appendix 1. The Centres listed in Local Development Plan 2 can be found in Appendix 2. 7. When looking for a suitable site for a Community Land Trust development the Trust may wish to consider the Candidate Site Register used when developing Local Development Plan 2. 2 8. For ease of reference a summary for suitable exception sites for affordable housing from that exercise is attached at Appendix 3 Suitable Sites for Affordable Housing along with a link to the Register. 9. If a new site is proposed by the Community Land Trust (i.e. one that has not previously been identified), the National Park Authority will undertake an assessment of the site’s suitability for development free of charge. 10. This assessment will consider the initial suitability of the site in terms of whether it lies within or adjoining (if proposed solely for affordable housing) a Local Development Plan 2 Centre and the size and scale of the site is in keeping with the character of the Centre. – a list of Centres and the Communities they lie in is provided in Appendix 2 Centres listed in Local Development Plan 2. A copy of the full assessment form is provided in Appendix 4 Site Assessment. 11. The Authority will use the same approach it used to provide the assessment of sites for Local Development Plan 2. The parameters below will help inform a site’s suitability in more detail. Bringing A Site Forward: Tips and Advice Land owner Landscape Impact Amenity Intention Privacy, Light, Noise Would development of the Are they willing to site conserve or enhance release the land? the character of the village / street scene / surrounding context? Mitigation? Ecological Flood Risk Sewerage Capacity Sensitivity Water Supply Will the development be Is the site or species vulnerable to, or increase Can the sewerage system protected or worthy of the risk of flooding? cope? Can water be protection? supplied? Access for people Historic Environment Affordable Housing and traffic Need Impact upon any of the Can the road network following present on the site The proposal meets cope with the amount or neighbouring: Listed affordable housing need in and type of traffic? Buildings, Conservation the locality. Motorist and pedestrian Areas, Scheduled safety. Monuments. 3 12. The National Park Authority welcomes the opportunity to provide early advice on the suitability of a site’s development. 13. The section below provides further advice on the support the National Park Authority can give with the application of Policy 49 of the Local Development Plan 2, set out in Appendix 1 Extract of the Adopted Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Local Development Plan 2 (September 2020) for ease of reference. Further Advice and Support 14. The National Park Authority is generally supportive of Community Land Trust developments. 15. The Authority will start with the presumption that all community-led developments will be supported, unless there are fundamental problems with a proposal (for example, it would cause unacceptable highway safety problems). The Authority will work with the Community Land Trust to find ways to make its proposal acceptable if we find there are problems which we think can be resolved. 16. To help the Community Land Trust, any proposed development should be discussed with the Authority at an early stage to prevent any unnecessary work. The Authority will provide free initial pre-application advice to community-led initiatives and encourages community groups to refer schemes to the Design Commission for Wales at an early stage. 17. For sites adjoining Centres, the impact on the character of the locality and the countryside will be important to consider. Schemes should avoid causing significant harm to the appearance and character of the local landscape and townscape, or harm to heritage assets (including their setting). This will partly be facilitated by considering site location – but also by considering issues of overall scale, design and layout. 18. Where there is potential for some harm, the National Park Authority will work with the Community Land Trust to overcome this, or put in place a mitigation scheme. In reaching a decision on a proposal, the National Park Authority will balance any remaining harm a scheme might have with the benefits of the proposal. 19. Considerable positive weight will be given to proposals whereby it is clear the proposal is genuinely community-led and genuinely has community support. A Community Land Trust is established for the express purpose of furthering the social, economic